Friends remember Hill for commitment, passion

Tuesday

Whether it was his commitment to shoe-leather reporting or his tenacity toward influencing the next generation of Young Marines, Cliff Hill is remembered for his commitment and passion.

Editor's note: The services have been postponed and will be announced by Jones Funeral Home.

Whether it was his commitment to shoe-leather reporting or his tenacity toward influencing the next generation of Young Marines, Cliff Hill is remembered for his commitment and passion.

Hill, a retired Marine sergeant major and a longtime Jacksonville resident, died Monday. He was 82.

Following a decorated 31-year Marine Corps career that ended with his retirement, Hill turned in his weapon and issued himself a pen, taking to the streets as a reporter for The Daily News from 1984 until 2001.

“When I moved to Jacksonville, I knew nothing about the Marine Corps and I didn’t know anything about the Marine Corps community,” said Madison Taylor, an editor at The Daily News during Hill’s time as the crime reporter here. “I learned how the Corps and its public affairs works. I learned the mindset of a guy who had been in the field. He helped me understand what the troops are thinking and how they go about their job. ...Cliff gave me good insight into how the military thinks as a whole. He made me see things I wasn’t aware of.”

But it wasn’t all business for Hill, Taylor said, laughing as he reminisced about Hill’s jovial laugh and his passion for cooking. One thing Taylor said he always enjoyed was hearing the former Marine’s stories from active duty because they always ended with something humorous he had never heard before and was enough to break whatever tension was built up in the newsroom.

Whether it was his passion toward speaking with law enforcement officials, being at crime scenes or covering a murder, Taylor said that Hill worked so hard that his fellow reporters felt compelled to keep up with him, which made the newspaper better in the long run.

“I’ve never seen someone so passionate about reporting on crime,” Taylor said. “He was very well-liked, conducted himself professionally and did his job very capably.”

Elliott Potter, the publisher of The Daily News, worked alongside Hill for the duration of his tenure and hails Hill as a legend in the paper’s newsroom. “He had a close connection to the military, but once he became involved in journalism I feel like his pursuit of the story became a calling to him,” Potter said. “It quickly became who he was. Sure, he was always a Marine sergeant major, but he was a pretty tough reporter too.”

Hill, according to Potter, was hard-nosed on the outside but on the inside he was a tender, great man who truly loved his wife, Jane. Potter said Hill left behind a legacy of excellence in journalism and true devotion to his craft.

“The best way to get a story is to be there, and Cliff Hill was there,” Potter said. “He made it a point to be there. ...A lot of times today, we do things with the computer or the telephone. That’s not the way that Cliff did it. He did it by going to the scene and talking to people. He got his information firsthand and hustled to get that done.”

One of the cases that inspired Hill to become a journalist was the return of Marine Prisoner of War Robert Garwood to the United States, according to Glenn Hargett, the assistant city manager for the City of Jacksonville and a former radio host in the 1980s. Garwood’s return home and the controversy that surrounded his imprisonment were what brought Hill and Hargett together, and the two remained friends since.

“Cliff had a unique view,” Hargett said. “He was skeptical, but that skepticism was buoyed by the belief that things would work out in the end. He was an avid researcher that delved into subjects.”

Hargett rememberd Hill as dedicated to the story, whatever the story it was.

“He fell in love with journalism and was devoted to his wife,” Hargett said. “A man of faith, he was a deep person who loved being in the middle of a story because the scoop was important to him but so was accuracy and doing something that meant something to him.”

Long before Hill was chasing stories, he was working his way through the ranks in the Corps. One of his peers, Jack Murphy, also a retired sergeant major, described a “go-getter” with a voice that a Marine Corps drill instructor would be envious of. The two worked together on various occasions, sometimes in different platoons, and often joked about who was senior to one another when they shared the same rank.

“I think dependable is a good word for Hill,” said Murphy, 83, of Jacksonville. “We would talk things over and claw at it and get things done. For me, he was easy to work with. I’m not sure the troops enjoyed him very much, but when he said do something, they did it.

“We bantered back and forth together quite a bit. We enjoyed each others’ company.”

Hill leaves behind his wife of 63 years, Norma Jane Johnson Hill, and their two sons, three daughters, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. The family asks that memorials in lieu of flowers be directed to the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 16 of Jacksonville.